campbell



(No Model.) u 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

D. E. CAMPBELL WAX TEEEAD SEWING MACHINE.

No. 253,157.. n Patented JmL-31.1882.

l' muni] WITNESSEEI: l I ,INVENTCIFH M@ i l (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 D. H. CAMPBELL.

WAX THREAD SEWING MAGHINE.

No. 253,157. Patented Ja,11.31,'1882 WITNESSEE: INVENTCIR:

(No Model.) v .3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

D. E. CAMPBELL.

WAX THREAD SEWING MACHINE. No. 253.157. Patented Jan. 31,1882.

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Nirnn STATES ATENT einen.

DUNCAN H. CAMPBELL, OF PAWTUOKET, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR OF THREE-FOURTHS vTO HENRY B. METCALF, FRANK E. COMEY, AND DANIEL MCNIVEN, ALL OF SAME PLACE.

WAX-THREAD SEWING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 253,157, dated January 31, 1882."

Application filed November i1, 188i.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, DUNCAN H. CAMPBELL, of Pawtucket, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tax-Thread Sewing-Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings furnished,andformingapart of the same, is a clear,'true, and complete de- 1o scription of the severa-l features of my invention.

My said improvements pertain exclusively to thread-waxing, and they have been devised for use with single-thread chain-stitch machines, and with two-thread shuttle-machines, whether thc shuttle be operated below or above the work-plate, and in all cases the thread is thereby waxed immediately prior to the fora mation of a stitch. A

zo After a full description thereof, the several features of my invention will be specified in detail in the several claims hereunto annexed.

Referring to the three sheets of drawings, Figure l, Sheet l, is a View of so much of a sewing-machine with my improvements applied as is deemed necessary for illustration. Fig. 2, Sheet 1, is a vertical sectional view of the waxing apparatus detached. Fig. 3, Sheet 2, is a vertical and partially sectional view of 3o the waxing apparatus shown in Fig. 2, so far modified in form and arrangement as to adapt it for use in a post or horn, which is also shown. Fig. 4, Sheet 2, is a horizontal section on line a: x, Fig. 3. Figs. 5 and 6, Sheet 3, are respectively a longitudinal section and top views of a shuttle embodying portions of my invention. Figs. 7 and S are sectional views respectively on lines y and z, Fig. 5.

Referring to Figs. l and 2, it will be understood that A denotes the head of one type of wax-thread machine, and B the tension and take-up mechanism as heretofore constructed. Below the head is a work-plate, C, of any desired form. These parts in no manner involve any portion of my invention, and may be almost indefinitely varied in their construction and arrangement.

The thread-tube D is an important portion of my waxing apparatus, and it is of value that (No model.)

it be so located with reference to the front p'or-V 5o' tion of the take-up mechanism and to the path of the needle fthat it will occupy the path of the thread in a straight line from the take-up mechanism to said needle-path. Considered solely as a threadtube, within which waxed thread is maintained in a soft and pliable condition just prior to its delivery t0 a needle, and located in the front portion of the head of the machine, as shown in Fig. l, and in the direct path of the thread between the take-up 6o and needle-path, this tube D constitutes a novel feature, described in a certain prior application for Letters Patent filed by me August 5,1881, serial number 39,317. As now used, however, it serves as an auxiliary wax-cup, 6 5 and is provided at itstop with a slitted and perforated plug, a, Fig. 2, and at its bottom with a compressible conical plug, b, perforated centrally, a ixed plug, c, also perforated centrally and threaded externally, and an inter- 7o nelly-threaded sleeve, d, by means of which the conical plug b, which serves as a compressible packing around the thread c, may be more or less compressed for securing good packingcontact with the thread, which, as shown, extends from the front end of the take-up mechanism, on a straight line, through the plugs and the. center of tube D to the needle-path atf. rIhe plug b should be composed of cork, felt, or other compressible material which will 8o resist the impairing effect of heat and destructive effects of the wax.

rIhe upper plug, a, need not always be in close contact with the thread, for its function is mainly to serve as the close top of the tube used as a wax-cup for preventing the escape of heat and obviating undue evaporation of the hot wax; but said upper plug may also be relied upon as a stripper of hot wax from the thread, as well as thereby working the wax in` 9o to the body of the thread. The lower plug, b, serves as a stripper, a worker of wax into the thread, and also as the bottom of the tube, serving as an auxiliary wax-cup.

Ihe main wax-cup E is located without reference to the path of the thread, and is accessi bly mounted upon some convenient portion of the machine, but it is essentially so located with reference to the auxiliary cup D that heated wax will flow from the main to the auxiliary cup through a suitable pipe, as at g. Said main cup is also supplied with a suitable heating mediumeither steam-pipes, a lamp, or a gas-burner, as shown at 7L. It is preferable that the heat be applied at or near the bottom of the main cup and adjacent to the conduitpipe g, so that the daugerof overheating may be well guarded against, and also so that said conduit may be well heated; and it is best that the main and auxiliary cups, as well as the connecting-pipe, be composed of copper or other good conductor of heat, and in some cases the heating medium may also be applied directly to the auxiliary cup. Broadly stated, the main feature of one branch of my invention consists in the combination, with a main wax-cup, of an auxiliarywax-cup connected with and supplied by the flowage of wax from the main cup and located on a level with the main cup, within the path of the thread, whereby the latter may be drawn to and fro into, through, and from the auxiliary cup in a direct line, the wax being free to 'flow from the main to the auxiliarycup in proportion as it is taken up by the thread, my object being not only to properly wax the thread immediately before forming a stitch, but to do itin such a manner that the liability of breakage of the thread within the wax-cup will be reduced to a minimum, and this, as I believe, can only be practically accomplished by the employment ofan auxiliary wax-cup,which, according to the particular type of machine with which it may be desired, can always be located in the path of the thread, so that the latter will be drawn to and fro therein in a practically straight line between the point where it last bears after leaving the take-up and the device by which it is drawn downward.

Heretoforea wax-cup has been mounted upou the front of the head, provided with heating devices and with a perforated rubber plug in its bottom, and compressing devices for :losing said plug around the thread; but in lrawing the thread downward through the cup lt was drawn from the plug at an angle, thereuy causing a liability of breakage at said plug, which liability can be whollyobviated by the employment of an auxiliary cup, because the atter can be located in the straight path of the :hread, and serve in part as a guide-tube and iermit the thread to enter and leave the tubu ar cup above and below in a straight line.

Heretofore a main wax-cup in the form of a :ylinder and located below the work-plate has )een provided with a piston automatically op- :rated for forcing wax upward to a receptacle pening into the shuttle-race, so that the latter noved to and fro in the wax, and the loop caryied down by the needle was dipped therein. I vertically-vibrating cup has also heretofore een used beneath a work-plate for dipping up vax from a main cup and deliveringit so that he needle could dip its point therein every imc it descended. By having my auxiliary nd main cups on the same level I not only obviate the necessity for the prior forcing and cup-lifting mechanism, but I thoroughly wax the thread on its way to the needle and workplate, and obviate the wasteful and objectionable throwing of the melted wax, naturally incident to rapidly-operated mechanism in contact therewith.

The value of the auxiliary cup D is well demonstrated when the problem ot' waxing thread,

within a post or horn is considered.

As illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, Sheet 2, the horn F is of that particular kind used in machilies having a shuttle above the work-bed, but so far as myinvention is concerned it might be such a horn or post as is used in singlethread machines.

As here shown, the main waxcup E', the heating-burner It', and the connectingpipe g are mainly as before described, differing therefrom only so far as is desirable or requisite for their employmentin this particular connection. The auxiliary cup in this case has a compressible plug at both ends, is located within the horn, and its center is in line with the direct path of the thread between the angle-roll t' and the usual-exit aperture at the top ofthe horn. As here applied the auxiliary cup is wholly housed within the horn, and the main cup is outside thereof, but it presents no obstruction to the complete use of the horn for the purposes intended.

Considered with reference to its operation with the wax, my apparatus differs from the prior waxing apparatus hercinbetore referred to in several important particulars. In said prior apparatus the thread was reciprocated up and down into and out of the mass of melted wax, so that the thread was continually lifting the wax from the mass upward into the air, after the mannerof dipping a candle, and the main body of wax was therefore kept in a more .or less turbulent condition, which, with the lifting and comparative cooling of the wax in the air by the thread, was specially conducive to the evaporation of the valuable volatile matters contained therein, causing it to become grainy or flaky, and thereby impairing its value in the seam. In my main wax-cup no such movement of the wax occurs, and the wax in the auxiliary cup is wholly inclosed and guarded against evaporating or cooling indu-- ences.

In the aforesaid prior apparatus the mass of wax was of necessity kept in a uniform and highlyheated condition, because the thread passed through themain body of the wax, and under those circumstances, as well as with wax-cups as heretofore commonly used, the wax is liable to frequent injury from overheating. In my main cup only the lower portion of the wax need be kept well heated, leaving it always suciently cool at the top to bviate evaporation, and at the same time to so modify the heat below as to render it practically impossible for the wax to be overheated and thereby injured. As arranged in each of the instances illustrated, the level of the wax IOO IIO

Qaeda? s in the auxiliary cups will be determined by the quantity of wax in the main cups.

For passing the thread through the auxiliary cup a long slender eye-pointed needle is used, and said needle may be entered from above or below, as may be most convenient in each case. The fixed plugs are bell-mouthed or funnel-shaped at their inner ends, which renders it an easy matter for the point ofthe threading-needle to be passed into and through the thread-holes. With myimprovements, as described, I am enabled to employ hard wax with better results than have heretofore been obtained with soft or liquid wax, whichis well known to be objectionable, and the thread 4as waxed by meis so soon thereafter embodied in stitches that no requirement exists for heating the thread after waxing it..

As thus far described I have only shown how I wax threads to be delivered to looping mechanism, or delivered so as to lock with a second thread carried by a shuttle, whether the latter be above a workplate, post, or horn or belowI a work-plate; and I will next describe how I wax,or preferably rewax, a previously waxed shuttle-threadjust prior to forming a stitch. Heretofore mechanism has been devised for this purpose which in general terms may be described as involving` a brush or pad or arm which is at intervals vibrated from a supplyv of heated wax to the thread between the shuttle and the throat-plate ot' the machine, whereby the surface of the thread is intermittingly charged or anointed with wax. I have, as I believe, for the first time embodied within the shuttle a waxing device whereby as the thread passes therefrom it is waxed or rewaxed.

As shown on Sheet 3, the shuttle Gis internally divided byapartition intoa thread-chainber, k, and wax-chamber l. As preferred by me, the wax-chamber is located at the front or nose of the shuttle, and the thread passes through the center ot' the flexible packing m, which is secured in a tapered hole by the clamping-plate n and set-screw o, having its seat in the wall ot' the shuttle, as clearly shown. The packing m is rendered adjustable by aid of the compressing-screw p, which enters from the underside ot' the shuttle through its solid nose. The solidly wound cop q of waxed thread is located in the chamber k, the internal end drawn out, passed through the central aperture, r, in the partition, and thence through the packing in the nose ofthe shuttle, and thereafter suitable tension-bars on the exterior of the shuttle engage therewith. `The shuttle shown is straight and centrally pointed, and provided with a recessed web on its upper side 5 but these features are not essential in connection ywith my present invention. The shuttle thus provided with a wax-chamber will require a good heating arrangement, many of those heretofore devised being suitable for the-purpose. The aperture r need not be tightly occupied by the thread, for it will be in no manner disadvantageous if some of the wax passes .into the thread-chamber, because the thread cannot become so charged with wax that the packing will not properly strip the thread as it passes from the shuttle. In charging the shuttle with wax and thread, the previously heated shuttle is held nose downward, the end of the thread from the cop passed through the wax-chamber and through the packing, a-

charge ot' wax poured in from the heel and the cop inserted; or the cop may be lirst put into position and the melted wax poured through the hole which contains the packing, the latter being readily removable and as readily replaced while on the thread. The rapid reciprocating motions ot' the shuttle, as in use, will so agitate and throw the inclosed body of wax as to cause it to be properly applied to the thread, even if the wax-chamber be only partially filled.

Having thus described myinvention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. The combination, in awax-thread sewingmachine, of a main wax-cup, and an auxiliary wax-cup on a level with the main cup, adapted to be supplied with wax by lowage from the main cup,and arranged to be traversed by the thread on its way to the workplate, substantially as described.

2. I'Ihe co1nbination,in awax-thread sewing- 1nachine,ot' a main wax-cup, and an auxiliary wax-cup connected with the main cup and located between the take-up mechanism and the work-plate, and in the straight path of the thread, substantially as described, whereby the thread enters and leaves the auxiliary cup in a direct line, as set forth.

3. In a wax-thread sewing-machine, a tubular wax cup traversed longitudinally by the thread on its way to the work-plate, and provided at top and bottom with perforated plugs, substantially as described, whereby the wax is inclosed and guarded against injurious exposure, as set forth.

4. A waxthread shuttle having a threadchamber, a wax-chamber, and an aperture provided with packing for stripping the surplus wax from. the thread as it leaves the shuttle, substantially as described. A

DUNCAN H. CAMPBELL.

Witnesses:

'1T W. G-ILMORE,

DANIEL MCNIVEN.

IOO

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